Five Wicket Defeat for the Seconds

Bangor 2s made the trip to the Castle Grounds in North Belfast knowing that another win in Junior League 2 would all but secure their place in the league next season with a couple of games still to go in the season. On a warm and muggy day, skipper Pyper won the toss and decided to make first use of a dry and soft wicket with Sam McMillan and Adam Simmonite asked to open the batting. Both teams fielded strong squads for the game with it resembling ‘half a 1st eleven team’ with the game happening on a Sunday with no 1s game for either club. So it proved a great opportunity for both sides to get some additional game time out in the middle ahead of the final few weeks of the season.

Both openers got off to a strong start using the pace on the ball to score freely when the bad ball was offered up but in the 7th over the first wicket fell with Sam bowled for a solid 19 and the score on 41. Initially the runs continued to come for Bangor with run scoring easy to come by across the large outfield but sadly the wickets kept falling too with skipper Pyper and Simmonite dismissed for 9 and 25 respectively. Bangor struggled to gain any momentum in the game with 4 more wickets falling quickly thereafter.

With 7 overs to go and the score on 95-7 Michael Skelly joined George Prince at the crease with the need to score runs to set up a decent score to defend the main thought for both men. Runs were hard to come by as the hosts bowlers bowled tight lines and their field well positioned inside the ring or on the boundary. Prince and Skelly were up to the challenge though however picking up their ones and twos well, with a couple of boundaries thrown in. It resulted in a 47-run partnership between Prince and Skelly in the last 7 overs with the batsmen finishing up on 32 and 18 not out respectively with Bangor ending up on 142-7 off their 30 overs, a defendable score and something to work with.

Bangor came out in the second innings knowing early wickets would put the hosts under pressure. Simmonite and Chris Pyper opened the bowling and kept things relatively tight but couldn’t find the breakthrough the side needed. Like London buses, two came along at once for Bangor when Skelly and Ben Escott picked up their only wickets of the day to limit the hosts to 59-2 in the 12th over.

Bangor had a way back into the game but the next couple of overs swung the game back into the hosts favour thanks to the big hitting O’Leary and some loose bowling from Bangor. The score had accelerated to 122-2 in the 19th over with game virtually up, but Prince picked up three late wickets bowling tight lines and lengths along with Conor Cox to restrict the hosts to getting over the line in the end in the 25th over with 5 wickets down. The seconds are pulling double duty this weekend at home to Armagh 2s on Saturday and away to Woodvale 2s on Sunday.

BCC 142-7 30 Overs
A Simmonite 25, G Prince 32*, S McMillan 19, M Skelly 18*
N Greenness 3-19

Cli 143-5 24.1 Overs
N Cahill 20, S O’Leary 35, J Roe 22
G Prince 3-22

C’ville Academy won by 5 Wickets